ABSTRACT
Although pragmatics has tended to be neglected in models of intercultural competence, interculturally oriented thinking within L2 pragmatics has begun to reveal potential for capturing intercultural abilities within a pragmatics perspective, particularly by looking at learners’ metapragmatic awareness. This chapter reports on a study that explored the assessment of EFL students’ metapragmatic awareness and intercultural adaptability through critical reflections on intercultural incidents. This study examined 37 Spanish university students’ reflections on three incidents in terms of metapragmatic awareness and intercultural adaptability and categorized their comments into initial, intermediate, or mature intercultural competence (IC) levels. Results reveal that the majority of students have an initial IC level, some an intermediate one, and a few have a mature IC level. These findings show the benefits of using critical reflection to assess IC and highlight the applicability of the developed rubric. Ultimately, this study contributes to the need to operationalize IC for assessment purposes in a way that captures learners’ ability to interpret and reflect on intercultural scenarios.
